“Change the way you think about things, and the things you think about will change.” This cliche sums up 80 percent of modern personal development, but it’s about as useful as marital advice that suggests a minute-long daily hug will ensure everlasting love or financial advice that suggests if you skip your morning latte and save the money you’ ...…

Your dental health is very often the proverbial canary in the coal mine, meaning that periodontal disease is often a red flag that systemic problems exist which could be very serious. Proper brushing and hygiene are essential, of course, but dental health starts from within, particularly with the foods and nutrients you eat. So what’s the probl ...…

I signed up for my first 12-day meditation retreat in 2001, and then I dropped out two weeks before the start date. I never drop out of anything. Eighteen months later, I signed up again. This time, I was ready. It was exactly as you might suspect: a room full of people sitting on cushions—not speaking, not moving—for days at a time. There were ...…

I love everything that’s bad for me, and alcohol certainly falls under that umbrella. It’s a love-hate relationship really, and I don’t drink anymore. At this stage of my life, it’s just not worth it. Am I boring and health-obsessed? Probably. But maybe you are too. Here’s what we know about booze: Sixty-one million Americans are classified as ...…

Have you ever driven from your house to the office and were unable to remember anything about the drive? Have you lost track of days and even weeks when stress and frustration turned your brain to mush? What would your work and your life look like if you knew how to stay focused yet flexible; if you got more of the right things done; if you wer ...…

I spent my first 27 years of life convinced that men and women were exactly the same except for the obvious anatomical differences and a boatload of socialization. After a big relationship breakup, I read the modern classic book, Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, and quickly learned I was wrong about so many things. Men and women are ver ...…

The average life expectancy is nearly 83 years where I live. People are living healthier, wealthier, and longer lives than ever before, but what the heck do you do in that last third portion of your life? Golf or bingo? Yoga or CrossFit? It’s really hard to know what options we’ll have in our 80s, but it also seems pretty foolish not to plan fo ...…

After the age of 40, there is less space between your spinal vertebrae than when you were 20. This steady degeneration of tissues happens predictably but can be exacerbated by weight, high stress, extreme athletics, and even accidents. Aside from the natural wear and tear on our joints, many people also suffer from autoimmune attacks which affe ...…

Environmental activist, Colin Beavan, and his family decided to make a bold statement: they’d spend an entire year living as close to “zero impact” as possible in the heart of New York City. They’d ditch subways and taxis, food that came from further than 100 miles away, and TV. In the end, they’d gain a new perspective on life. Listen & Learn: ...…

When we think of strength and muscle mass, we typically imagine physique-obsessed bodybuilders staring at themselves in the mirror and clanking weights around in the gym. But what if there is more to the story? What if lean muscle is more than just aesthetics, particularly as we age? My guest on this week’s show is a trial lawyer who represente ...…

This no-nonsense health and wellness show features best-selling authors and thought leaders in nutrition, mental health, relationships, and self-improvement. Each episode also includes listener Q&A. Hosted by yoga trainer, writer, and expert speaker, Lucas Rockwood, the founder of YOGABODY and The Yoga Teachers College.…

Group dynamics fascinate me. Why does one person take on the leadership role almost immediately without any need for introduction or approval? How did that one person decide he was the joker? And why is there always someone lurking in the back, avoiding eye contact and trying to be invisible? I’ve been hosting training courses for 13 years now, ...…

Most people believe that carbs give you energy, fat makes you fat, and protein builds muscles - but this is not how the body works. In fact, we metabolize macronutrients very differently - often counter-intuitively - and it's important to understand the hormonal impact of food as you attempt to find balance. Too much protein can be just as prob ...…

Open up Instagram right now, and start counting the number of narcissists in your feed today. How many? Three, ten, fifty? Is there anyone real in your feed? Narcissistic personalities have always existed, but with social media, it's a bigger problem than ever. These hyper-insecure people lack empathy, live in a constant state of conflict, and ...…

Modern medicine's best thinking pales in comparison to the wisdom of our bodies. The best science only has a very rudimentary understanding of the dynamic and complex organism we inhabit, and yet we're always looking for the magic pill and the prescriptive cure.On this week's show, we'll explore ancestral wisdom for the modern man and the seemi ...…

By the end of the 1700s, the average American consumed four teaspoons of sugar a day. One hundred years later, that number had risen to eighteen teaspoons. Today, we're consuming 22 teaspoons (93 grams) per day, and it's a huge problem. Diabetes rates are through the roof, and elevated blood sugar levels contribute to nearly every major disease ...…

“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” - Friedrich Nietzsche What in your inner world enables you to fully show up in the outer world? What is more important: What you have or how you feel? On this week's podcast, you'll meet Susan David, PhD, who has dedicated her life to emotional health. She'll inform you how to ask yourself bet ...…

When the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve, the internet will explode with searches for the best diets, which yield all kinds of good, bad, and absurd advice for getting healthy and fit. Vegetarians duke it out with Paleo people, macrobiotics argue with raw foodists, and the cycle goes on and on with no obvious winner. Even with the best ...…

Positive thinking is great, but how do you handle yourself when your spouse is in a funk or your boss is negative every minute of the working day? With all the best intentions for the day, many of us wake up and get hit with the Fox News or CNN.com onslaught of gloom and doom, and this influence shapes our reality for the remaining of our wakin ...…

As the saying goes, “You can have anything you want in life, you just can't have everything.” However, figuring out exactly what you want is often difficult, as it means compromise, sacrifice, and hard work. With the New Year around the corner—a natural time to reflect on the year gone by and to plan for the year to come—the subject of clarity ...…

What if you become so focused on exercise and healthy living that it becomes an unhealthy obsession? What if you're a parent and eat a balanced diet but struggle to feed your kids well? What if yoga is giving you a hernia? On this week's podcast, I'll do my best to answer these great listener questions and more. Listen & Learn: Risk vs.reward o ...…

Most people know more about Game of Thrones than they do about their own digestive system. They know how many nuclear warheads are in North Korea, but they don't know their Vitamin D levels or their fasting blood glucose levels. This is a problem. The term 'mindfulness' usually conjures up the image of a monk sitting in Lotus Pose in the middle ...…

After your first yoga class, your hamstrings will hurt like hell. After your first day snowboarding, your wrists will ache and your bum will be bruised. After your first week struggling to play Knockin’ on Heaven's Door, your fingertips will be raw. Welcome to the awkward and irritating world of new skill acquisition. The journey from grossly i ...…

Xanet Pailet was in a marriage with zero physical intimacy for more than 15 years. Most people don't go that long, but many do wait years before they openly address these issues; however, by then, permanent damage to the relationship may have already been done. Sexuality is a definitive part of the human experience, and when it's not working, i ...…

I struggled with chronic sleep deprivation for more than a decade. During that time, I’d fall asleep in the barber’s chair. If I was talking on the phone while in bed, I’d pass out in the middle of the conversation. On airplanes, I’d be asleep before takeoff and the flight attendant would have to wake me up after landing. My world was hazy. My ...…

Mark Lukach's wife spent nearly two months in total in psychiatric wards during three different bipolar episodes. Mental illness appeared seemingly out of nowhere with suicidal thoughts, delusions, and dangerous behavior. While this story sounds extreme, I promise that someone you know and care about is suffering right now, as well. That being ...…

Have you ever heard someone blame their weight gain on a 'slow metabolism?' It sounds logical, but what does it mean exactly? What is considered 'slow?' When we talk about metabolic health, it's important to define what it really is. You'll quickly learn that it's multifaceted and you'll need to work separately on each area. On this week's podc ...…

If you can balance well, your yoga practice is more fun, you’re faster and nimbler, and you might even live longer. Sound far-fetched? Check it out: falls are the second leading cause of accidental or unintentional injury deaths worldwide. 424,000 individuals die from falls globally. My balance has improved massively in the past couple years, b ...…

Everyone has some area of their life where they feel totally stuck, and it usually falls into one of three categories: health, wealthy, or relationships. It's very rare that all three of those areas of life are flowing smoothly at once time, it's usually a balancing act where family life is awesome but work is a mess, or work is cruising but yo ...…

A little girl named Charlotte was having as many as 300 seizures a week, some lasting as long as 30 minutes. Her body was frail, her health was suffering, and her parents were at their wits' end. After every other medical intervention failed, the family tried a nonpsychoactive extract from marijuana called CBD and their lives were never the sam ...…

Recently, my friend returned from a family member's funeral 8 lbs heavier and asked, "What's going on?" Weight gain from stress can be clinically explained by a few different mechanisms. There is emotional eating, where you eat to distract yourself and bury your sorrows, but there is also emotion-induced weight gain, where, during a period of h ...…

I receive questions from listeners every day. On this week's Q&A show, I'll answer a few of them, with topics ranging from flexibility for seniors and what technically breaks a fast to Xylitol and Vitamin K2. ------------ Listen & Learn: Is it possible for people over 60 to increase their flexibility Is Xylitol really healthy Does drinking soy ...…

People joke that they 'laughed so hard they peed their pants.' However, this is a real problem called stress incontinence—a symptom of pelvic floor dysfunction. The pelvic floor is a complex group of muscles, fascia and connective tissues at the base of your spine that is crucial for bladder control, posture, sexual function, and the health of ...…

A stage hypnotist convinced my friend Burton that he was an undercover spy and needed to find a clue hidden in the forest. There were 600 people in the audience, but Burton was all in. He raced off the stage, returning 10 minutes later, covered in sweat (clearly he had been running around campus), at which point he proudly displayed the ‘clue’ ...…

Think of your body as a three-legged stool with an electrical body (your nervous system), a bacterial body (your microbiome), and a chemical body (your endocrine system). These three legs are largely responsible for your health and well-being, and if one leg gets whacked out from under you, you'll likely fall on your face. Today, let's focus on ...…

The quality of your life is determined by the quality of your relationships; and yet, for most of us, being in relationship is hard. Most of us find it challenging enough to get our own lives in order, so when you share children, finances, loves and loss with another person, it's never a linear path. What about sex? What about religion? What ab ...…

This concept of "a pill for an ill" has led hundreds of millions of Americans to take prescription medications every single day. Antidepressants for mood, opioids for pain, and proton pump inhibitors for stomach problems—the list goes on and on. Modern medicine is truly a blessing, but it's gotten out of hand; and in many cases, we've neglected ...…

There are more than 10 times as many microbe cells in your body as human cells, but interestingly, we're exposed to our first bacteria at birth—and from there, the process begins. While two humans are almost identical genetically, their microbiomes can be dramatically different, which accounts for differences in the way they digest food, the wa ...…

I feel I’ve let you down. I’ve hosted pretty much every renowned breathing expert in the world on this podcast, and yet most of my listeners are still not sure exactly how yoga breathing works. On this week’s show, my goal is to break down the fundamentals of yoga breathing in a way that you can easily remember and apply to your practice. ----- ...…

During the summer between 8th and 9th grade, I watched my classmate Jeff go from about 125 lbs to 180 lbs in six weeks. This scrawny, video game nerd turned into a force to be reckoned with through a combination of hard gym workouts and anabolic steroids he bought from his older brother. I'm not sure if you've ever seen a transformation like th ...…

Have you ever used a scalp massager made of long, thin wires? For most people, it causes quite the sensation, sending tingles from the back of their neck down their spine. Or maybe you have this reaction when someone whispers in your ear? This pleasurable response to specific auditory and visual stimuli is known as autonomous sensory meridian r ...…

Chronic pain—the most common of which is back pain and digestive pain—affects as many as one in four people. Pain plays a crucial role in the body as a clear sign that something is injured, diseased, or in need of extra care. However, when pain becomes chronic, many times the pain signals sent to the brain no longer correspond with any kind of ...…

Have you ever seen a yoga student, runner, or CrossFitter with weird crisscrossed tape on their knees? Have you ever experienced knee pain that kept you from doing your favorite activities? Aside from back problems, knee pain is the most common issue I see in my yoga studios, with the inevitable question being what to do about it. On this week’ ...…

Your tight hamstrings, stiff hips, and locked up spine are not going to find freedom on their own—you have to train for mobility. When your body is tight, it affects everything, from your standing and sitting posture to your stride, but when you increase your range of motion, it feels as if you’ve added an extra room onto your home. Flexible bo ...…

My balance has always been terrible. It didn't matter if I was on a skateboard, a balance beam, or in tree pose in yoga; I've always found it incredibly challenging to stay steady. Some people are just better at balance than others, but when I was about 30 years old, I realized my extremely-high arches and tight calves were largely to blame. To ...…

My six-year-old son will approach the person behind the counter at the grocery store and ask, “Do you have anything for kids?” At the doctor’s office, he’ll ask, “Do you have any candies?” He doesn’t break eye contact and his voice is steady, without a shred of insecurity, and it works. People give him things everywhere he goes. This is the pow ...…

If you go to any convenient store, you'll see dozens of "energy" products including bars, drinks, and snacks. Most products are loaded with sugar or caffeine—or both. In the short term, they'll certainly give you energy, but in the long term, they send you spiraling down. High energy is at the cornerstone of health, but we often neglect the ver ...…

Back in 2002, when I couldn’t make it to a studio, I would play an old cassette tape and practice to that in my bedroom, hotel room, or even outdoors wherever I was. At-home practice has always been part of my yoga experience, but I’m the type of introvert that gets energy and inspiration from being alone. I’m naturally driven, and I’m harder o ...…

Most health and diet books focus on reducing your waistline but neglect the most "mission critical" part of your entire body: your brain. The 3 lbs, watery, fatty mass between your ears needs to be fed well and cared for, but most people don't give brain health the attention it deserves. Meet Dr. Lisa Mosconi, neuroscientist and author, and lea ...…

Following the advice of parents, counselors, and health care providers, millions of women take hormonal birth control starting in their teenager years to avoid unwanted pregnancies, regulate their periods, or to control acne. But what if you gain weight, lose your libido, and get depressed? What then? The FDA warns that hormonal birth control c ...…